Vengeance
by Indy Chance
Summary: The past will always haunt you. No matter who or what you are. But what will the price be?


--Dedicated to the kid with the baseball bat. We might not have made it out of that alley without you.

--Dedicated to the woman with the cell phone. Thanks for calling the cops on us.

--Dedicated to Alie'e. Thanks for keeping me from getting myself killed.

--Dedicated to Marco, Rebbie, Joules, Tommy, Lou, Mary, Ricky, and Mike. Thanks for coming back instead of running away.

--Dedicated to Nic. Thanks for handing me a pencil and paper instead of my knife or a gun.

--Most of all, this story is dedicated to Lou and Ricky. We're all going to miss you.

********

I always thought people had the right to choose their life. I always believed a person made that ultimate choice between good and bad. It never occurred to me that I was really just in denial.  
  
My friend Alisha, at work, told me last week that, "No matter where you go, Ryo, the problems you run from will follow you." She was actually talking about herself, but it struck close to home.  
  
Sage is probably still upstairs right now, talking to the officers, trying to explain. It must be hard for him; he was never exactly fantastic at lying.  
  
Cye's in the bathroom, I think. He couldn't lie well if his life depended on it, and he's really just so upset right now...I don't think he can talk at all yet.  
  
Mia just parked her jeep in the lot outside. She's storming through the lobby doors and looking right at me, and I know she can see what I didn't tell her on the phone clear as day on my face.  
  
The ambulance just left with Rowen. One of the medics said he still has a chance. Gods, I hope so.  
  
Kento's upstairs in Rowen's apartment. He's lying on the living room floor, one arm twisted at an odd angle. There's a pool of blood around his head, mostly under his neck.  
  
Kento is dead.

***

  
  
Rowen isn't awake yet. I keep pacing from the window to the door, glancing at him in the hospital bed. Sage is sitting beside the bed; I can tell he's exhausted. Cye is talking to a doctor outside. Mia went to Sage's a few minutes ago to get some stuff for him, since we managed to convince the doctors to let him stay the night for Rowen.  
  
Rowen's face is covered in bruises. The doctors had to stitch up the entire left side of his lower jaw. They also had to set his right leg, jumpstart his heart, and give him three liters of blood. They say his back will scar, and he may never run again.  
  
Sage thinks this is his fault. I'll admit to some guilt myself, but Sage seems worse off at this moment.  
  
When Rowen asked Sage if he would come home with him at lunch today, Sage said no. I don't know why, since he's usually willing to do almost anything with his best friend. Kento volunteered to go, and I still don't know why Rowen wanted someone to go home with him anyway.  
  
Kento was on the phone with Cye when it happened. From what Cye told me in the bathroom at the apartment building, it went something like this:  
  
Kento: "Cye, you should see this book he's reading. It's like, the size of China or something."  
  
Cye: "Sounds like your appetite."  
  
Kento: "Ha. Ha. I'll teach you, you little pipsqueak. You just wait and s--"  
  
At that point, Cye heard a crash on the other end of the line. To him, it sounded like a small explosion. We would later find out that it was the sound of four men crashing through the living room window. A moment, later, he heard Rowen shouting something, then Kento calling his armor. At that point, he'd heard enough, and he hung up, called us, and headed for the apartment complex.  
  
We got there in time to see Kento fall and one of those men drive a spearhead through our friend's throat. Cye tackled the man and started to smash his face to hell. Kento was dead by the time Cye threw the first punch.  
  
Sage and I had much more trouble saving Rowen. The other three men had him trapped in the kitchen, and were drawing out the act of killing him, relishing in his suffering. When we arrived, one of them had a sword rammed through Rowen's back and the other had just broken Rowen's leg over his own knee. He apparently had never had a chance to call his armor, because it wasn't on him.  
  
Sage and I had to armor up fully to take down the three men, which still is shocking to us. They were like mini-gods or something. And in the end, they escaped.  
  
Cye killed the man who took Kento's life. I came back to the living room, leaving Sage with Rowen, to find the British boy still pummeling away at the intruder, even though he was already gone. I had to drag him away from the dead man.  
  
We set things up for the police. We made up a story about all of us being there when a single intruder came through the window. We claimed he took out Kento with the spear while Sage, Cye, and I were in one of the back rooms. We told the police that Rowen had been in the kitchen when he was attacked and that the other three of us managed to fight him into the living room, where Cye killed him. We never had to worry about anyone seeing Kento's armor, since it disappeared upon his death. Everyone believed the entire story.  
  
Rowen is alive. Barely.  
  
Kento is gone.  
  
I'm here to watch over my surviving friends, and I will avenge Rowen and Kento.  
  
Sage is going to need Rowen to survive, or he may do something rash.  
  
Cye's going to be okay, I think. He's just going to need us all more than ever. And lots of time.  
  
There are three men out there who have a bone to pick with my friends and me. I don't know anything about them; I don't know how or why they killed Kento. I only know that I hate them more than anything has ever been hated, and if anyone reads this and sees them...  
  
Tell them Wildfire's coming for them.

I may continue with Vengeance…I may not. The introduction is based on thoughts running through my head at the moment this story was written, half an hour after Ricky passed away. Hold your friends close to you, don't risk their lives. Death may be a frightening thing, but losing someone you care about to death is far worse.


End file.
